SUVIR SARAN, EXECUTIVE CHEF OWNER

SUVIR SARAN Author of American Masala and Indian Home Cooking In the kitchen, I found the answers to all my curiosities.
Viewing the kitchen as both a culinary and spiritual haven, New Delhi-born chef Suvir Saran has nurtured a lifelong passion for the traditional flavors of Indian cooking, which has lead him to become an accomplished chef, cookbook author, educator, and organic farmer.
As Executive Chef of Dévi, Saran shares the authentic flavors of Indian home cooking in an inviting 75-seat restaurant in the heart of New York City. Devi has consistently received popular and critical acclaim, earned a three-star rating from New York magazine and two stars from The New York Times. It is the only Indian restaurant in the U.S. to have earned a Michelin star. A respected culinary authority, Saran is Chairman of Asian Culinary Studies for The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and travels extensively to teach audiences, ranging from home cooks and fellow chefs to physicians and nutritionists. He has been a featured speaker and guest chef for notable gatherings such as the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference hosted by the CIA and Harvard Medical School Osher Institute; Smithsonian Folklife Festival; Food Network's South Beach Wine & Food Festival; New York City Wine & Food Festival; and many others. Saran has also led classes for culinary centers and schools nationwide including the Institute for Culinary Education; Sur La Table; Williams-Sonoma at Time Warner Center; Central Market; and Apron's Cooking School at Publix.
Renowned for his accessible approach to Indian flavors and techniques, Saran has penned several cookbooks including Indian Home Cooking: A Fresh Introduction to Indian Food, with More Than 150 Recipes (Clarkson Potter, 2004) with Stephanie Lyness and American Masala: 125 New Classics From My Home Kitchen (Clarkson Potter, 2007) with Raquel Pelzel. In November 2010, Saran will be the only U.S.-based contributor to the largest Indian cookbook ever published, India Cookbook,featuring 1,000 recipes (Phaidon Press, 2010).
Saran's approachable and informed style has helped to demystify Indian cuisine in America and ultimately formed American Masala, his culinary philosophy which celebrates the best of Indian and American cooking. His recipes have been featured in publication such as Bon Appétit; Cooking Light; Food & Wine; Fine Cooking; Travel + Leisure; Condé Nast Traveler; Departures; InStyle; The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal; USA Today; and more. He is a contributor to Food Arts magazine.
He has been a featured judge on Next Iron Chef and Iron Chef on the Food Network and numerous appearances on national and local broadcast including NBC's Today; The Martha Stewart Show; Travel Channel's Epicurious TV; Martha Stewart Living Radio Living Today; BBC Radio The World; APM The Splendid Table; WBEZ-FM "848 with Steve Dolinsky"; WHYY-FM "A Chef's Table with Jim Coleman"; KGO Radio "Dining Around with Gene Burns"; among many others.
When he is not on the road, Saran and partner Charlie Burd live and care for American Masala Farm, a nineteenth century farm on sixty-eight acres of rolling land in upstate New York and home to lovingly raised heritage breed animals and pets including two dogs, cat, sheep, ducks, geese, alpacas, chickens, guinea hens, and goats. Dedicated to the recommendations of the American Livestock Breed Conservancy (ALBC) in choosing the farm's animal population, Saran and Burd exemplify farm-to-table living by providing local restaurants with their heritage breed eggs and goat's milk.
suvir@devinyc.com

HEMANT MATHUR, CO-EXCUTIVE CHEF, OWNER

Hemant Mathur has come to the United States from his hometown of Jaipur, India, by way of Mexico and Germany, to become one of the country's top tandoor masters. Since age 17, Mathur has sought the perfect balance of fresh, flavorful ingredients with a spicy flair. His passion for the authentic flavors of his youth has brought a new level of sophistication and innovation to Indian food in America.
Mathur and longtime friend and collaborator, Suvir Saran, are the co-executive chefs of Devi in New York City, which together they have owned since October 2007. A tribute to authentic Indian home cooking, the 75-seat restaurant serves Mathur's boldly flavored Tandoor Grilled Jamison Farm Lamb Chops with Pear Chutney and Lamb-Stuffed Tandoori Chicken; as well as enticing specialties such as Phool Makhane Kee Sabzee (Lotus Seeds and Cashews in a Creamy Aromatic Sauce); Kararee Bhindi (Crispy Tangy Okra with Tomatoes and Red Onions); and scrumptious breads such as Onion-Parmigiano Kulcha.
Garnering favorable reviews and attention from such media as The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Observer, Time Out New York, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Departures, Details, Crain's New York Business, and Bloomberg Radio, Dévi was awarded a Michelin one-star rating for 2008 and 2007the only Michelin-star Indian restaurant in the country. Mathur has distinguished himself as a talented chef at some of New York City's top Indian restaurants. He formerly teamed up with Saran in 2003 to open Amma, garnering rave reviews. As executive chef of Diwan Grill in 2002, he fused French and American culinary and service concepts with traditional Indian cuisine. In 2000, working under the late Raji Jallepelli, Mathur's cooking created a buzz at the highly-praised restaurant Tamarind.
His professional career began at the Rambagh Palace Taj Hotel in Jaipur where he gained a steady training in kitchen expertise from bakery and garde manger to butchery and classic elements of Indian cuisine. After four years, Mathur was eager to hone his craft in the art of tandoor cooking and joined the world-renowned Bukhara Restaurant in the Maurya Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi. After three years, he traveled to Mexico to serve as the private chef for British financier Sir James Goldsmith and further expand his culinary horizons. Returning to India, Mathur opened the restaurant Sonar Goan in Calcutta's Taj Bengal Hotel where he stayed until being recruited by a group of German restaurateurs to bring his craft to Berlin at Seeterrson and Kashmir Palace, where he stayed for three years.
A mastery of authentic Indian cuisine and a unique culinary style has brought Mathur's cooking to the spotlight on television programs such as PBS How To Cook Everything: Bittman Takes On America's Chefs and Food Trip with Todd English; Travel Channel's Epicurious TV; NYC-TV Channel 25 Eat Out NY; ImaginAsia TV Pulse; and CBS 2 News Live with Dana Tyler and radio programs such as WOR's Food Talk with Arthur Schwartz.
He has been a featured chef at the James Beard House and a participating chef at the Worlds of Flavor conferences organized by the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. He has also assisted Saran in teaching classes at NYU's Department of Food and Nutrition, as well as De Gustibus Cooking School at Macy's and Williams-Sonoma at Time Warner Center in New York City, and cooking at The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.
In addition, Mathur contributes his time to cause-related organizations such as Citymeals-on-Wheels at benefits Taste of New York and Feast of Many Moons at Rockefeller Center; Union Square Partnership; Share Our Strength; City Harvest; the South Asia Tsunami Relief fundraiser New York Chefs Cooking For Life; and Legal Aid for Immigration, among several others. At Dévi, Mathur is proud to be working alongside his wife and talented pastry chef, Surbhi Sahni.
hemant@devinyc.com

KUNAL LAMBA, GENERAL MANAGER

Food & Beverage hospitality runs in my blood, says Kunal Lamba. Quite literally so, as the son of a New Delhi restaurateur came to New York from his hometown via a stint in London.

Kunal has a bachelors in hotel management from the prestigious Wecomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration in India. He was gainfully placed in one of the top hotels in South Asia the ITC Maurya (3 of US presidents have lived there in the last 10 years including Mr. Obama in November 2010).

Kunal was a restaurant manager at this Mecca of Indian cuisine (which houses the world famous Bukhara restaurant) where he nurtured his passion for the profession and wanted to broaden his horizons by travelling west. He left for London where he ran one of the grand daddies of Indian cuisine in the city-The Gaylord.(Est. 1966)

His further quest for travel got him into the US where he started as a Food and Beverage Manager at a Doubletree Hotel in New York but realized the real food buzz in Gotham city is not in hotels but on street side abodes of delectable cuisine like Devi.

It was Devi where he felt at home and that is evident in the way this man runs his dining room.

Kunal has also been interested in hospitality training and is a frequent guest faculty for the hospitality management program at La Guardia Community College, New York.

kunal@devinyc.com